


July, 17.

by cikicuba



Series: The Magic In Birthdays [1]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, Bittersweet Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Romance, Slice of Life, Smut, oh and fake boyfriend if that might interest you, still can't believe i deadass wrote a shitty sex scene and is now feeling utterly embarrased
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 00:29:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19841746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cikicuba/pseuds/cikicuba
Summary: It's not a bucket list, it's a whole chaotic spontaneous which involved his stupid drunk ass and a famous podcaster named Kim Mingyu.





	July, 17.

**Author's Note:**

> SHOUTOUT TO THE BIRTHDAY BOOOY!
> 
> (to you who shines the brightest during the sun, gleam in the dark of the night, the one who lighten every path of the beautiful city, sparkling in the dim sky alongside the flickers of moonbeams. this is for you, Jeon.)

Eleven hours before midnight, Jeonghan dumped Seungcheol’s ass. It was a total mess since every lunchtime the place will always packed with people wanting to fill their empty stomach after forcing themselves to work all dull morning. Wonwoo is there, third-wheeling as always, his Samgyetang only eaten by half as Jeonghan started to hit the table angrily and made the glasses man jumped out. His duty is to be the judge and also a witness of whatever stupid occurrence which about to happen between the couple. Seungcheol, raising his body on the seat with the intention of calming his boyfriend but ended up giving up since Jeonghan wouldn’t even let the man touches him.

“If you care so much about your successful career then you should’ve married the company instead. Live in the building, sleep on the office couch and see if your flirtatious secretary can give you sex as good as I am.”

Wonwoo covers his face over his palm. Getting a major second embarrassment on Tuesday afternoon was never on his agenda. In fact, he was about to get ready to leave both of them but Seungcheol clearly did not approve such a betrayal behavior.

Seungcheol tries again, desperately. “Babe, that’s not—”

“Don’t you dare _‘babe’_ me, old man! We are _done_ , Cheol. _So done._ ”

Seungcheol hit his head on the table. It’s done for real. Not unless one of them willing to stop being a crackhead for the sake of the fragile relationship and be mature enough to talk about it. It’s fun for Wonwoo though, being the only one who knows about the affair between his two friends when all the coworkers knows nothing about it. Stupid rule, anyway. _No dating between your officemate?_ This company is sure handled in the most old-fashioned way possible. _But anyway, yeah, back to the chaotic couple._

Jeonghan? He wanted to settle down as soon as they can, saying that he's not even young anymore for such a childish term as a boyfriend. Seungcheol? Nah, he's okay. Unless the fact that he's a workaholic bastard who spent the rest of his youth building his career path and is about to become the CTO of the company. Problem? None of them willing to sacrifice their ego.

"I know this is quite hard to take but you should let me do the work. You can just rest and have fun."

" _Oh, I see_ ," The blonde man snaps, hands-on waists. "So you sayin' that I should stay home die of boredom while you're doing something important for the country? You're not the only superior with a great career path in here!"

_See? Hopeless._

Wonwoo tries to stay away from cranky Jeonghan ever since, been avoiding the man by working in any other place except within his reach. Jeonghan tends to push you into listening to his misery no matter the situation and Wonwoo _had deadlines_.

So much for only the second day of the week.

Nine hours before midnight, Soonyoung wanted to resign. The man just had to push Wonwoo into the bathroom and yelled at him ten minutes straight for something he clearly didn't responsible at. Soonyoung looked like a mess. Crumpled white shirt with rolled sleeves, messy hair, red eyes and a black bag under his eyes, someone must've pissed him by a lot.

"HE'S AN ASSHOLE!"

Wonwoo gulps. "Okay."

"I'm sure he did that just to pissed me off. He fucking did that on purpose. Which sane person would decline a proposal just because he's not in the mood to sign it? None. Which came up to the realization that he's not a sane. He ain't human. A satan. A possessed demonic live inside his body eating any possible left sanity he had."

"Soonyoung, you need to tone down."

"I CAN'T FUCKING TONE ANYTHING DOWN, WON!" Someone came into the bathroom, looking at them both weirdly but Soonyoung couldn't care less. He says what he wants to say. "I can't stand it anymore. I can't stand working under Lee Jihoon for any fucking longer than this."

Wonwoo hit his head into the bathroom door.

It shouldn’t be like this. _Tonight supposed to be about him._ He had everything planned ever since a week ago: they will eat dinner after work, then go to the karaoke to celebrate his birthday until midnight. He even bought his own cake in case his friends are busy enough to remember (it’s okay, happens a lot. _Really_ , it’s okay). But right now, with Jeonghan and Seungcheol’s relationship on the edge of the cliff and Soonyoung about to mess up his entire career featuring his lunatic boss, Wonwoo rather be at home and sleep.

He decided not to mention any plan at all.

Wonwoo spends the rest of the afternoon working hard on his deadlines. _Hold on, scratch that._ He spends the rest of the afternoon looking at the dots on his computer screen. Nothing particular about it, at least spacing out giving him the reason to not think of anything. But even the dots couldn't help him on feeling off. All is wrong, the seat felt too uncomfortable, his coffee tasted bitter, and he wanted to sleep. It’s always like this every 16th of June. Rather than feeling the excitement, he was rather… _anxious_. Not about the ageing thingy, or the party, nor the anticipation of the present but more like... _Will people remember? Did they even care? Are they know how special the day is for him?_

_Birthday, on a contrary belief, is torture._

Maybe it’s his fault. He never blame anyone on the lack of friends and the connection he had. A day in the office is tiresome, Wonwoo sometimes feels suffocated even just to have lunch outside with his department. People are too much to handle, and he was a normal human being who avoided them as much as he can. Not to be anti-social, not to be the introvert nerd or limiting himself, he just rather gives his mind and body a rest. Spending Friday night marathoning _Sherlock_ is better than a company dinner, sleeping is on his to-do list on Saturday morning, so why bother going out to the bar with his friends and get wasted? Jeon Wonwoo’s priority works like that. A simple quality time for himself. To be precise, engaging with others was rather quite hard than loneliness.

This can’t do. He needs to get out of here.

So the emergency stair was where he's heading.

There’s something about the said place that holds the best kind of silence. No interfere, and the place weirdly has the strongest wifi signal of the entire building. It’s the best place to think or avoiding his coworkers once in a day when they decided to start being a douchbag.

Wonwoo had a hobby he found rather quite old-fashioned. The show starts exactly at 5.59 pm, never more and never late. The consistency satisfies him, he was weird like that. 5.59 pm will always be his escape hour, the time when he still had a couple of hours before going home but too tired to work on anything. So he escapes instead. Plugging his earphone, then goes to tune in the show with so much anticipation on his chest.

_Please, just like always, be the moodboaster._

_Wake Up, Sleepyhead!_ is a podcast show hosted by one of the famous radio broadcaster, a fine young man (google’s work, all he had to do is put the keyword in), seemingly quite tall for what the man said a few times during the episode, and a very knowledgable human being. _Wake up, Sleepyhead!_ talks about the adult daily problem which quite related to Wonwoo’s part. The show also talks about how you managed to maintain your work, love, and life balance during this hectic peak season of your life.

For him, Mingyu is the smartest person he’s ever met. Hang on, _heard_ , revised. He knows so much about social issue happened nowadays, a great taste of music, friendly personality, and the most important thing is that he gives the greatest advice Wonwoo could ever possibly get. Mingyu is like the friend he never asked, helping Wonwoo going through his day with his voice. _Imagine, only his voice!_ And the man doesn’t even know he existed, If only he knew there’s a man at one of those building, sitting in the emergency stair all by himself, listening to his voice with eyes full of adoration.

_Evening, our dearest sleepy friends!_

Mingyu’s voice beaming in the air, filling his ears with the satisfaction of his husky voice.

_Won’t bother to ask how’s your Tuesday going ‘cause I don’t accept any other than dull as an answer._

Wonwoo chuckles, the man is such a mood.

_As I already talked about it last evening, today we’re going to have a very special corner. And if, 'if' this session hits the jackpot let’s see if we can make this as a regular. I haven’t named the corner yet oh wait—actually, I did. But I think it’s kinda corny so I need you to revise that for me later. SO! On today’s episode of From your ears to mine, in which I already received a few of your phone calls where I listened to your stories and worries. Thank you for that, by the way. A nice peep talk. Now, now! It’s time for me to share it to others and obviously, I will try to be as decent as possible on retelling. I have already given each of them a made-up name for the sake of keeping their identity and first of all, let's welcoming our Mr. Bag of Luck._

A big smile appearing on the glasses man’s features, lips raised up by a few inches.

_Mr. Bag of Luck sounded a little bit upset when we talked on the phone this afternoon and I can't help but feeling sorry. Turns out it will be Mr. Bag of Luck’s birthday this midnight, but he said there’s no one he can celebrate with. Isn’t that too bad? Birthday supposed to be warm and nostalgic, spending time mourning alone is just sad. Which is why, today we’re gonna talk about something called Fragapanophobia or you can call it—the fear of birthday._

For thirty minutes Wonwoo was sitting there, listening to Mingyu mumbling and jumbling about his perspective on the fear of birthday itself. What caused it, how do most people face it. He talks about it like it's normal, and that we can't do anything except being a better version of ourselves. It makes Wonwoo think he’s human enough to feel such a weird experience, it makes him think he was the same as any other, it makes him forget about his low self-esteem.

_I’m not saying that Mr. Bag of Luck is going through this syndrome, yeah? It’s just that... his story makes me wanted to talk about this topic in particular, and that I might help others who suffered from it. Or maybe, Mr. Bag of Luck himself! I sincerely hope that something exciting will happen tonight and thus you don’t have to spend your birthday alone, kind sir. Best of luck._

  
_And now i know we all enjoying our session today, but it's very unfortunate for me to tell you guys that we have finally reached the end of our thirty minutes session. But don’t be too sad! We’re gonna meet tomorrow in the exact same time, the same channel, and still with your favourite host, Mingyu Kim. Before we officially ended this I just wanna remind that this podcast is supported by The Rainbow Sky animal shelter, the safest place for abandoned stray cats and dogs to have a better home to live. Now it's really the time for me to leave. Enjoy the rest of your days, peeps!_

Wonwoo takes off the earphone as his eyes wandering to look up at the ceiling, feeling the warmness inside his chest radiating through his body. _No cranky feeling, no bad mood, only a silly fluttering heart._

For hours before midnight, Wonwoo snapped. The man gathered his hopeless friends in one table, hands on the waist while trying to make his face look as fierce as possible so that both of them will know how furious he was. Jeonghan of course, always one step ahead of him on being angry, said that Wonwoo is wasting his time by holding him here. Soonyoung is willing to sit there without any resistance but Wonwoo knows his mind is somewhere far away.

“Do you guys know how selfish both of you are right now? Tonight supposed to be about me! We should go to the karaoke by now and sing on top of our lungs and get drunk and blow the candle. I had a cake prepared! And I already told the staff to help record us while singing! And now I can’t even do any of it because you had this damn juvenile fight with your boyfriends!”

“ _IT WASN’T JUVENILE!_ ”

“ _LEE JIHOON IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!_ ”

Wonwoo slaps his own palm, startle both his stupid friends. It’s such a childish thing going on here for a man around their ages but he guesses that makes the three of them. A bunch of idiots.

“Look,” The glasses man pushes his eyes shut, feeling tired already. “Let’s just get drunk tonight. I don’t wanna be alone on my birthday, and you need alcohol in your system. Sounds fair enough?”

It took only five seconds for them to nods.

Two hours before midnight, Wonwoo regretted his decision on playing along with his drunk friend’s stupid idea. Thirty-five years living in this world and tried to live as decent as possible, and this is what he becomes.

“I feel so bad for you yeah, Won? You’re like… a lost kitten. You always too scared of anything. That’s why we’re your only friends... right?” And with the last word, Soonyoung collapsed on the table.

“Yeah,” Jeonghan hiccups, face completely red and swollen. He was so fucking wasted. “Sometimes it’s too awkward to watch the movie with you and Seungcheol. I wanted it to be a date but I feel so bad for leaving you behind. Why can’t you find a boyfriend?”

Wonwoo wasn’t drunk. Drinking was never been his taste, so that’s more of the reason how everything that came up from their mouth going straight into his chest, slicing it hard, bleeding it, wounded him to the very last of his veins. He has been punched by invisible hands and now there’s only bruises and tears. To the very last of his sanity. To the very last of his patient. He thinks right at that moment is where all this chaos happened. Right at when his frustrated tears are about to stream down, and he doesn’t want to look like a sad old man, he doesn’t want to be pitied, and he had the pride to maintain. _So, yeah, here comes stupidity._

“I had a boyfriend.”

Jeonghan snorts, Soonyoung giggles so loud the entire bar can hear him.

“I thought this is a serious conversation?” Wonwoo tries again.

“Yeah, dead serious. What was that again? _Oh!_ We’re talking about your imaginary boyfriend!” At this rate, no one will be able to stop Soonyoung’s giggles.

“What about you, then?” The glasses man is fired up, burning fever. “You always talk about how a jerk human being Jihoon is and that you wish you never crossed path with him in this world when the truth is that you really wanna get into his pants.”

“ _How dare—_ ”

“ _—And you,_ Jeonghan hyung. Try to keep your extremely high pride on the line and see if Seungcheol hyung will be around much longer than he already is.” The man breathes, drinking the alcohol straight into his system. “You guys are no better than me, okay? So don’t even try to make yourself valid by listing down all the bad things about me.”

Wonwoo thinks he’s going to vomit in any second.

“Man… are you okay?” There’s a hint of worries in Soonyoung’s tone but it’s too late anyway.

“No, I’m not, Soonyoung. One hour before my birthday and I feel like a waste of space. I just said bad things I wasn’t planned on saying, I’m here with my drunk and very brainless friends, and I’m a thirty-five years old workaholic man who had a great future career opportunity ahead but doesn’t evenn have any life beside of that. Of course I’m not!”

“But you just said you had a boyfriend.”

“ _Oh for heaven’s sake that’s—_ ” No. No more embarrassing himself tonight. This is his night. He can’t be the one who ended up being the bestfriend of the lead role. He wanted the spotlight, the main script of the movie, he wanted the role so bad and doesn’t even realize how obsessed he was. It was so damn suffocating. “ _—Well_ I mean, he’s not here right now.”

“Call him then.” Jeonghan still capable of talking and it amazes Wonwoo considering how he’s drinking to his nth bottle right now. “Call him to pick you up. You can celebrate the rest of the night with him _y’know_ , doing dirty things.”

_Gross, and never gonna happen since it’s a fucking lie. No boyfriend ever existed._

“Fine.” Wonwoo says confidently.

Jeonghan looks slightly taken aback but his drunk situation telling him to just believe in everything. “Fine?”

“Yeah I’ll call him, tell him to come here and pick me up.”

“Okay?”

Wonwoo gulps. “Okay.”

The man gets up from his seat, grabbing his phone, walking away. He’s confusedly heading outside towards the exit door and exhales deeply, loudly, after finally breathing into the fresh air.

Wonwoo scrolling through the contact list on the phone with a blank expression, it feels like standing on the edge of Hangang bridge and if he moves by an inch he will fall, drown, and die. He can’t step back because he’s being tight into the railing and his friends were there to watch him.

Who he will gonna call?

His cousin? No, Soonyoung knows about the existence of them. One of the ex-coworkers from his previous company? Shit, it’s too embarrassing. Should he download the dating application Jeonghan told him about? No, he’s too scared of strangers.

_Great, this went well._

There’s this one number on the outgoing call. The number he called this afternoon, the voice he listens every 5.59 pm in the evening with so much hope and anticipation. Just thinking about his last conversation with the man gives Wonwoo an utter chill on his skin, pricking his unconsciousness to just call so they can talk for hours and hours. But this is not the time for that. He needs to bring someone who can save him from this embarrassment. He thinks, and thinks, and thinks. A few people passing by, looking at him worriedly when Wonwoo started to hit the phone on his forehead. He looks like a lunatic, that’s for sure.

That's when he started to hear a vague voice creeping through his ears.

“Hello?”

_Wait, that’s—_

Why is he hearing Mingyu’s voice just now?

“Uh… Mr. Bag of Luck?”

Wonwoo turning his body backwards. Still no sign of the man, no sign of anyone near him. Where did the voice come from?

And then he sees his phone screen showing a bunch of numbers, phone call already lasted for ten seconds just now. Wonwoo curses on top of his lungs.

“ _SHIT._ ”

“What?”

He almost throws his phone away.

“Did something happened?” Mingyu tries again.

“ _No, no! I—I didn’t—I mean—_ ” This was officially the most embarrassing thing ever happened in his life, beating that one time when he had to go to the toilet so badly in the middle of a very important presentation in front of all boards of director. “I didn’t mean to call you, sorry. My fingers might be slipped or something.”

“Oh,” the man chuckles and Wonwoo can imagine on his head how Mingyu pushes his silky silver ashes hair back through his fingers. “I thought you being kidnapped or something.”

“I’m an adult, Mr. Kim.”

“That doesn’t mean someone can’t kidnap you.”

“Okay that was a valid reason but no one’s getting kidnapped.”

Mingyu is smiling right now. Wonwoo might not see that but he just knew. He knew the man’s smiling right now. “Good then. So how’s the birthday celebration?”

“What?”

“Y’know, it’s your birthday in an hour.”

“Oh.” Wonwoo cleared his throat awkwardly. “Yeah, about that…”

“Don’t tell me you’re crying alone in your room right now.”

“I wasn’t!” The man grumbles, sounding a little bit too defensive. “Just… there’s a little bit of inconvenience.”

“What kind of inconvenience?”

“The kind that I can’t explain to you.”

“Okay…” Mingyu hums. “That's a pity? Since I might can help.”

_He can help._

_Helping what? Pretending to be the fake boyfriend? That’s—_

_Hey! That’s actually a great—_

_No, no, no. Get your sense together Jeon Wonwoo._

“Mr. Bag of Luck? Knock knock? Are you spacing out?” Mingyu makes the accidental phone call sounded so casual, so friendly.

“Listen, I really need your help right now?”

Mingyu goes silence for a few seconds. “That sound dangerous but go ahead.”

“Right... I’m so embarrassed about telling my drunk friends that I had a boyfriend when I actually don’t but I didn't want them to pity me at the same time which also mean I some sort of have to bring someone, someone who’s nice enough to pretend that we have at least a special connection enough to be called a relationship. I know it’s confusing and I sound even more pity that I already am right now but my life has reached to the point that everything doesn’t even make sense anymore and suddenly I pushed your number by accident and I wanted to hang this phone up but at the same time I’m getting frustrated and you’re my last and only hope. The last of it. So,” Wonwoo paused, pupils get bigger after realized he just spilled all of them to a complete, utterly stranger, a famous one, who could possibly be making this silly conversation the main topic of his podcast by tomorrow evening.

“Where are you right now?”

“…Myeongdong?”

“Be there in ten mins.”

“What? Wait, Mr. Kim—” the phone call is already ended.

Wonwoo did wait. Mostly because he didn’t know what to do, and there’s a part of him that scared Mingyu will come for real. But that alone is such a bold statement since it doesn’t even add up and things like that only happened in the cheap romance movie. But he guesses this is where his luck has taken him, and he had nothing to lose except pretending that his life wasn’t falling apart.

Wonwoo recognizes the man right away when he sees him from the amount of time he invested looking at Mingyu’s post on Instagram. Fact one he found as he looking up at the man is that the camera didn’t do justice to those glorious bronze skin of him, those silver ashes hair, and his cute teeth showing up everytime he smiles. Mingyu looks more human than he is on any medium. It almost like Wonwoo can reach him and they can actually befriend. Except, Wonwoo is sucked at building a decent conversation, for a start.

“Mr. Bag of Luck...?”

“Uh… no? I mean, yes. Why the hell did I say no? Yes. One hundred percent yes. Haha.”

_How do you delete yourself?_

The tall man looks like he’s holding back his laugh and Wonwoo couldn’t blame him for that.

“How did you get here so fast?”

“I was just a few blocks away. Company dinner.”

“And… why are you here instead of eating with them?”

“It was boring. Your situation seems more entertaining.”

“ _Boring_.” Wonwoo echoed but doesn’t emphasize any rudeness, just a bit glimpse of distrust.

“Should we get in now?”

“Get in… where?”

“To meet your friend?”

Wonwoo chokes on his own saliva. “Look, this needs to be discussed. We barely know each other. In fact this is the first time I’ve seen you in real life. We can just barge in there and pretend that we’re in love with each other.”

“Then let me do all the talk. You can just sit there and nods at everything I say.” Mingyu doesn’t seem unbothered and it annoys Wonwoo somehow. Also, he looks too young to be hanging out with someone as old as him. This is started to feel so wrong.

The next thing Wonwoo learns about the podcaster is that he does everything impulsively without any sign of recklessly. It’s like he counted everything on his head. He knows how to act, where to push, and what to add. Besides the lying part, Mingyu’s ability to engage in conversation with other people is uncanny.

It’s been fifteen minutes since he shook his hand with Jeonghan and now they’re already bestfriends. Both of them have a lot in common since they graduated from the same major and Mingyu was actually wanted to be the Public Relations Officer just like Jeonghan. It’s not hard to picture the man being the face of the company, building relations with a lot of people with that attitude of him. Someone as young and as good as Mingyu seems like he can reach even the top of the world, he was born to make this place to be better.

“Tell me, Mingyu,” Soonyoung pouring a little bit of Soju into Mingyu’s glass. “Where did you collect this stray kitten?”

The man furrowing his eyebrow, but a silly smirk plastered on his lips. “You mean… my boyfriend?”

“Ugh, I get it. He’s yours. Don’t be gross in front of us.”

There’s a hint of panic in Mingyu’s features and a few moments later Wonwoo’s phone blip with one incoming text.

_what’s your real name?_

**Received, 11.31**

God, this level of stupidity.  
  


_Jeon Wonwoo._

**Sent, 11.32**

  
“You might call this a coincidence but I did meet Wonwoo in the stray cat shelter.” Mingyu smiles, while Wonwoo widening his pupils over Mingyu’s natural tone.

“Ah, that’s possible. Our Wonwoo loves cat, right?”

“Yeah, he… _did?_ ” Mingyu aiming the question mark to the man beside him, surprised by the fact that he’s not entirely wrong about the lie.

“And how old are you, man? No offence but you seems too young to be hanging out with us, old people.”

“I don’t think that’s true? I mean you looked young for someone at the age of…” Mingyu signalling his eyes at Wonwoo, asking for help.

“…Thirty-five.”

“Thirty-five?” Mingyu asking back, a smirk once again appeared on his lips.

“Wait, you don’t know how old your boyfriend is?”

“Of course I did know. I mean, yeah. _Phew_ , thirty-five? Bullshit. You all look rather young.”

“You’re good at talking, I like you.” Soonyoung showing him the lunatic smile before drinking another glass.

“And how old are you then, Mingyu?” Jeonghan suddenly interfering.

“Twenty-seven.”

Wonwoo spouting his orange juice all over the table.

“JEON, IT’S GROSS!”

The glasses man is too busy chocking up. His eyes are teary he can’t even speak. And then suddenly Mingyu’s palm is there, caressing his back softly with patience. There’s something about the way his hand hanging on there that makes Wonwoo feels comfortable and all. It’s weird and scary, and Wonwoo is rather been home and sleep.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” No. But He’s embarrassed so it’s lie or die.

“That’s quite an age gap.” For someone who’s drunk enough to say a rude thing, Jeonghan is surprisingly well mannered. “Well I must say I’m quite surprised, since our Wonwoo right here rarely contacting other people rather than his circle. He’s more of a loner.”

“Yeah. _Yeah_ … I can see that.”

Mingyu glances at him with a bit of a teasing and playful grimace, but also a sign of understanding without necessarily mocking. And Wonwoo hates it. He hates that Mingyu is acting like the know each other for years, like he knows him best.

“What do you like about our Wonwoo, then?”

The tall man shifts on his seat, on a moment Mingyu’s hand move from gripping the glass into embracing the petite man’s shoulder and pulling him closer. For a fact, Wonwoo is trying hard to disguise his startled self. “Jeon… He made me curious, that’s a first. He’s soft, a perfect reason for me to be the dominant one regardless of the age difference, and i had this urge to protect him from all the bad thing in this world.”

“You sounded like a sugar daddy just now.”

Mingyu laughs, throwing his head back and hiding his forehead on Wonwoo’s shoulder afterwards. “I would be very much glad to be called a daddy by this man.”

Wonwoo’s lips are zipped, closed without any word could ever get out from there. His forehead suddenly senses a bit of warmness of how Mingyu’s lips landed in there, giving him a long peck that gets his knees weak and Wonwoo just close his eyes deeply, unconsciously feeling it. “Happy birthday, handsome.”

Wonwoo cannot remember anything after the kiss as he drinks like a madman he started to hallucinate things. Rather he realized, he was the one who needs the alcohol now more than his two other friends and so be it. One thing about drunk Wonwoo that should've been taken as a note, is that he becomes very touchy, very needy, and very horny. Drunk Wonwoo is the epitome of a lunatic lonely man, wanting every justification of being needed. It’s a good thing that Mingyu plays along with that.

“So,” The tall man adjusts Wonwoo’s drunk body on his embrace, wrapping his arm over his neck. His breath hitched despite Wonwoo isn’t much of a weight. “Your place or mine?”

“Why? Can’t wait to bang me?”

Mingyu chuckles. “You are so completely wasted.”

“And horny,”

“And horny.” The tall man repeats. “You need to tell me your address.”

“What address? I can’t even remember my name! What is my name? Where’s the address? I can’t remember, oh God! We’re gonna die in the street without the address!”

Again, the chuckles. This time with a bit of grunt because suddenly it’s getting heavier to hold the glasses man’s body. “It’s my place, then.”

First thing Wonwoo did when he enters Mingyu’s apartment is to puke in the bathroom, a very nice one bathroom to be precisely if only Wonwoo’s head wasn’t pounding too hard to enjoy the beauty of his surrounding. Mingyu came with a warm towel, wiping it through the man’s lips, taking care of him so affectionately.

In the odd and weirdly sense of act Mingyu undresses him and replacing the dirty work clothes with his oversized t-shirt and shorts, holding him bridal style to the bed and put him under the blanket. Then without hesitation, he positioned himself beside Wonwoo using his upper arm as his own pillow, body tilting sideways.

“Hey, Kim?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we going to have sex right now?”

Wonwoo thinks he needed to add Mingyu’s giggles as one of his favourite sounds to hear. “Do you want that?”

“I don’t know..”

“Why?”

“I just…” The glasses man scratches his eyes with his knuckles, glasses moving upward to his furrowing eyebrow. “I haven’t done it in months.”

“Seriously? Did you like solo performance that much?”

“Don’t mock me, will you? I wasn’t—” The man hiccups. “Wasn’t very keen on casual sex. Like the one without feeling? I tried to analysis the reason why I felt that way and I came up with the realization that I hate the people, not the sex. Why do I hate people so much? I don’t know. I think I did too much analysis, sorry. It’s literally my work. I’m a business analyst. Ha. Pretty boring, isn’t it? Alexa play Welcome To My Life by Simple Plan.”

“So does this mean I’m not on your blacklist?”

“Especially not.”

“Well, I’m honored.” Mingyu reaches for Wonwoo’s eyebrow and tracing it slowly with his finger, making Wonwoo feel more sleepy than ever. The man looks utterly vulnerable this way. Small, unharmed, and Mingyu draws himself closer without even noticing and feel a sense of protection towards him.

“I think…” Wonwoo breathes, the air pricking right through Mingyu’s skin and it was eery, sensual, and sexy by the way Wonwoo’s lips shoved into the shape of the tall man’s nose.

“Yeah? What do you think?”

“I think we can do the sex tomorrow morning.”

“And why is that?” Mingyu doesn’t sound like he was disappointed. In fact, he was very engaging to play this game.

“Cause I’m sleepy?”

The tall man laughs, pinches the man’s cheeks softly then pull up the blanket right through his neck. “Alright, old man. Let’s give you a good sleep.”

Wonwoo doesn’t say anything afterwards, he just let Mingyu do all the work. It’s when the man finally turns off the lamp, making them surrounded by the dark then the petite man had his finger wrapped around him. No sound, no words, just the entangling fingers.

“Don’t get too disappointed, I promise we’ll have sex in the morning.”

“Mhm, sure thing.”

“I will give you the best blowjob ever in your entire existence.”

The tall man snots, lungs stopped on functioning. “You did realize that you will totally regret ever saying all of that in the morning, do you?”

Wonwoo answering that with a shrug on his shoulder. “Ain’t morning yet.”

“Right… Well, see you in the morning, then.”

“Sure.”

“Wonwoo?”

“What?”

“I’m glad you didn’t spend your birthday alone.”

It’s quite hard to see the other man’s expression among the dark but Mingyu sure he can see a little bit of peacefulness on the features, alluring his veins in the color of blood, a signal that he’s alive and healthy. “Mmm, yeah. You took credit for that.”

“Am I still your fake boyfriend when morning comes?”

“It depends.”

“On what?”

“The necessity.”

Mingyu laughs, pulling the glasses off from framing the man’s face. “Alright.”

When Wonwoo opened his eyes in the morning, Mingyu is already looking at him with his big puppy eyes, barefaced and shirtless. No realization coming to his sense yet, he was there—body tilting, getting a full picture of toothy smiling Mingyu with his glorious bronze skin and cute teeth. And then he can see the bulky arms, still covered by the blanket mostly but he knows what’s behind it wasn’t something he can underestimate. _Man, the arms._ It makes Wonwoo feels things. Mingyu is, perfectly and undoubtedly, grand. His presence, his aura, his existence, all screaming every possible sensual vocabulary in the book. It’s hard to resist, hard to not take a look. If this is a war then Wonwoo definitely came unprepared.

Then he remembers last night. In this very position and the exact same bed, Wonwoo remembers saying all the silly things. That’s what he hates about being drunk. He remembers. And that alone sucks whenever his stupid drunk brain decided to do something utterly out of the league. Like last night, for example. Imagine how high his libido was for asking such a request to a stranger, a famous one underlined, practically his idol, to have sex with him and basically told the man how pity he was. Wonwoo is, to be very honest, was planning on running away. He’s fully clothed anyway, nothing harmed has been done and as soon as he steps his ass away from him Mingyu will forget any of this ever happened. _He was wrong._

Before he can move further or something, Mingyu is holding his arm from going anywhere. “Hi there, hot stuff.”

“Oh God.”

“Oh? Are we back on being shy right now?”

“I am originally shy. It was the alcohol.”

“So there will be no sex this morning?”

Wonwoo shuts his eyes by force. He can’t do this. Too much second embarrassment of his idiot-drunk-ass-self. “We can’t have sex.”

“And why is that?”

“Why? You’re asking why? _Well because!_ I’m thirty-five years old!” It was supposed to be Wonwoo getting frustrated, but Mingyu can only see little kitten cutely meowing.

“So…?”

“ _So!_ ” Wonwoo finally forcing his body to get up only to Mingyu pulling him down into his upper arm. “ _So we can’t!_ ”

“You are so damn grumpy, old man. It’s seven in the morning.”

“Oh my God, _seven!_ ”

“What? Why? What’s wrong with that?”

“I had a meeting at nine and now I’m gonna be late! Get off me.”

Mingyu buries his face on the crock of the man’s neck. “Nope.”

“Get off me, Kid.”

“I won’t. First rule on the _Birthday 101_ , it’s a No Work Day.”

_Right, it’s his birthday today._

“…What’s a _Birthday 101_?”

“Too lazy to explain.” Mingyu’s voice muffled inside Wonwoo’s hair. “Let’s take a shower first and find something to get rid of your hangover.”

“Take a shower.”

“Mhm.”

“Like, together?”

“I didn’t say that but thank you, for the fine suggestion. Take off your clothes.”

“No, no, no. Mingyu, wait!”

Wonwoo was, no matter how hard he tried, will not ever win against Mingyu’s giant body. It feels like fighting on a strong wall. The younger tickles him by a lot, it was a tight battle of Mingyu taking off Wonwoo’s clothes on their way to the bathroom. Childish, but fun. Fun in a way that the older didn’t even realize how he’s laughing out loud his cheeks starting to feel numb. Wonwoo never did something like this before. Not, in his entire existence, he’s ever running around the kitchen naked, just because he doesn’t want someone to catch him. It was stupid and very irresponsible. But this is the first time ever on his birthday that he doesn’t feel like he was a loner, or that today is just another year, another day of him wasting on his youth. There’s something new coming in on his life. Something he never experiences although his age wasn’t that young anymore.

Sometimes he feels like he’s throwing his life reaching for the stability on the financial part without even recognizing he never know what is fun or a simple thing like casual sex, even. So doing all of this with Mingyu, _with him in particular_ , excites him. For the first time in a long time, his morning doesn’t fill with the pressure of being late, or rushing on drinking his morning coffee, or how he distracted with his messy cooking while reading the presentation materials. It was pure. A pure laugh that he hasn’t done in such a long time. And the feeling works like magic. Wonwoo is floating in the air and Mingyu is there to catch him.

Being naked in the bathroom with _The Kim Mingyu_ seems strange. Never in a million years Wonwoo ever thought about this bizarre image of the tall man shampooing his hair, pushing his head lightly while being careful in case the foam will hurt Wonwoo’s eyes. Mingyu is being very gentle and Wonwoo imagine himself being punched in the face from the top of the building and soon he can be wake up from this very impossible dream. But he’s not. He’s there, and Mingyu is behind him, caressing his shoulder with the soap _so, so,_ sensually it’s maddening and Wonwoo’s entire brain is freezing.

“You’re hard. That’s nice.”

The older rolls his eyeballs. “Of course I’m hard, you moron. You keep seducing me with your not-so-innocent touch. Stop messing around with me and get on with it, kid.”

“Get on with what?” Minyu smirks, hands slowly going front. “This?”

Wonwoo moans, immediately grip on the wall to support his wobbly leg. “Do you want to do it or not?”

Mingyu doesn’t answer the question immediately. He washes Wonwoo up with clean water until they were no soap left on his skin. The gesture was tender, no sense of hurriedness, no dirty lust on his eyes either. That makes him wonder what kind of man the younger is. Or is it just him that doesn’t appeal enough on his eyes? Nonetheless, it was when Wonwoo’s self deprived strikes again and Mingyu sees that. He quite understands what’s wrong without Wonwoo had to explain it further, and Mingyu handles it so well. Started from giving a light peck on both of his cheeks, the tip of his nose, the clean forehead, and then the lips.

The lips are where all started. Mingyu is kissing him like no other else. He chews on the said lips, pulling it softly until Wonwoo finally sense the hint of pain. It stung, like being bitten by a red ant. But the pleasure was unbearable. No one ever kisses him like that. No one. The younger then starts to aim for his tongue, pressing it between his lips then swallowing all of it so eagerly like they were being chased by the apocalypse. It was warm. Warmer than the summer evening, where the sun just about getting low and Wonwoo likes summer. And he likes what Mingyu did to him.

Wonwoo started joining the bandwagon by grabbing Mingyu’s hair. The feeling of the younger silver ash hair on his fingers is bewildering. Even only from touching the hair Wonwoo feels like on the top of the world. Man, he’s too old for this juvenile cliché. But he doesn’t care. He wants Mingyu to— “Keep going.”

“Wasn’t intending on stopping.”

“Good.”

Wonwoo can’t really keep his hands on himself, that’s for sure, and Mingyu started to think that the older is secretly expert on this. Maybe he’s not lying when he said he only hate the people, not the sex. And Mingyu’s pride suddenly shadowing himself, asking to step up his game. He wanted to be the expert one, he wanted to be the one who makes him overwhelmed. He was young, energetic, and expert. He wanted to be dominant. Mingyu yank both of Wonwoo’s thigh up so that the man can tangle it behind his back. Positioning his palm under the older’s ass Mingyu starts to walk outside the bathroom, water dripping from their entire body. He can worry about it later.

The journey between the bathroom and Mingyu’s bedroom is torturing. They keep kissing each other until there was no room for the air. Wonwoo can feel Mingyu hardening against his stomach it such a biggest turn on and Wonwoo might getting an orgasm even without them doing anything in particular.

“Wait, wait!”

“What? I swear if you bail on me—”

“—Let’s do it in the kitchen. Sit me on top of the counter, bend me over the table. There, I’m giving you ideas. The floor also looks neat. I don’t mind.”

The younger furrowing his eyebrow before burying his face on Wonwoo’s shoulder, laughing. “You are so fucking cute.”

Mingyu did seat Wonwoo on top of the counter, spreading the leg like it was a five-star course meal. The older doesn’t complain. It was too fucking good to complain. Mingyu started on prepping him with two fingers, using a frozen lube he deadass grabbed from the refrigerator. Who in the almighty world crazy enough putting a fucking lube in there? Apparently Kim Mingyu and his weird kink.

Two fingers becoming three and Wonwoo is a moaning mess in a span of a second. The fingers goes in and out in a very rhythm way, summing up the thought that the younger aware where do all the pleasure comes from. Wonwoo cries his heart out, back arching in the cold table. His hand nudge an empty plastic cup and spilled all the water but he couldn’t care less. It’s Mingyu's fingers filling the majority of his brain. “Just… put it in.”

“Put what in?” The tall man giggles like a madman, he even dares to slip his fingers out, causing Wonwo to groans at the loss.

But Wonwoo is lack on communication even when he’s having sex. Instead of telling Mingyu exactly what he meant, he grabbed his own dick and giving it the pleasure himself. That, of course, doesn’t sit well with the younger. Mingyu immediately holds the slim arm and keep it away from doing anything.

“Kid… You’re—” Wonwoo is panting, whimpering, and out of breath. “You’re killing me.”

“Then speak. It’s me, what do you so shy of?”

“Okay,” The older is so close to crying. He doesn’t know if he’s crying from the frustration of the fact that Mingyu treated him so caring and so gently, or is it because of the pleasure. But the tears are there. Right on the verge of falling. “Please put it in. Oh my god. Put it in, put it in, put it in—”

“Alright, alright. I will if you stop crying. This is supposed to be a good thing, okay? Don’t cry.”

“I won’t.”

Mingyu wipes the tears with his thumb softly, looking at the other man so fondly with the little smile appearing on his features. Despite the eight years difference, the tall man looks mature enough to taking care of him and it makes Wonwoo ashamed. He wants Mingyu to protect him, be there for him, he wants the man all for himself and it’s maddening.

Mingyu pushes the tip of his dick slowly and calculating, and as soon as Wonwoo feels something filling on his hole he moaning and panting like a child. The sight makes Mingyu giggles above all of the things. Wonwoo sure the younger will use that to mock him after all of this done. After seeing Wonwoo relaxes a little bit Mingyu started to work on his pace. It was light, but then the tall man will push it so deep Wonwoo had to throw his head back, crying. “Fucking hell that was so, so good please do it again.”

“Right away, sir.”

The way Mingyu rocking his hips against him is like music, definitely those R&B with dirty lyrics Wonwoo always listen whenever he takes a shower, and now he understands what those lyrics mean. He wanted to do this everyday for the rest of the year. Screw work, screw deadlines, screw his old big tummy boss who always asking for a meeting so early in the morning.

“Are you sure— _ngghh_ this is our first time? Cause you know my body too well it creeps the hell out of me.”

Mingyu chuckles, but as soon as the older raises his hips so he can go even deeper than normal people ever did make him out of breath. Wonwoo was so damn delicious every bit of his veins started to losing its blood. “Sir with all due respect, I’m young and healthy. I become the expert on sex naturally.”

“You have to— _shit, shit, shit._ Don’t stop. Keep rocking your hips.”

Mingyu did. “I have to what?”

“You have to stop showing off your age. I get it, I’m old.”

Mingyu kisses him senselessly, cupping the small face with both of his palms. And Wonwoo melts. Meanwhile down there, the younger didn’t stop on moving. “I like teasing you, okay? Now please, focus. I’m about to blow your mind.”

When both of them came, Mingyu tilts the man’s ass upward, giving the best angle for both of them to feel the heaven on earth. Wonwoo is a mess. He couldn’t even open his eyes but Mingyu glad he can witness every bit of the man’s glorious moan right through his ears. The tall man falls himself on top of Wonwoo, feeling his body betrayed him. Wonwoo groans painfully. It’s getting hard to breath with the giant body hanging above him.

“You’re heavy, kid. Get off. And take me to your bedroom, it’s cold.”

“I thought kitchen is your kink?”

“Ha. Very funny. Get off or I kick your groin.”

“So bossy.” Mingyu snuggling his face into the crock of the older’s neck even deeper, voice muffled. “Hey, Won?”

“Yeah?”

“That... is what you called mindblowing birthday sex.”

Wonwoo giggles, patting on Mingyu’s head softly. “C’mon you, lazy teenager. Let’s clean up and eat.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“I swear it’ll be fun.”

“No, Mingyu.”

“Nope. You have to. It’s in the second rule of _Birthday 101_.”

_Screw all this stupid rule. Wonwoo is so not getting a tattoo._

Both of them entering the dim shop slowly, it's almost empty and only a couple of young teenager looking at the catalogue in silence. Wonwoo following him from behind, finger entangled so tight it feels like it won't break even if a storm passing by. That’s the thing about Mingyu, he’s not easily let anything go from his grasp. He holds it so close, so tight, and Wonwoo’s heart squished in the three hundred and sixty directions.

“Yo, Hao!”

A lanky man coming from the small room, wearing a denim overall with a white t-shirt. He looks like a true street artists Wonwoo always see painting murals on the wall. The tip of his hair is tied with black rubber, making him looks manly but also funky.

“Yo, Gyu! You still alive? Jesus must’ve really like you.”

“And you still haven't got in jail, yet? You must’ve had fucked the entire police station.”

Wonwoo chokes on his saliva. _Is this how younger people greet their friends nowadays?_

Minghao, the hipster guy, looking at Wonwoo from head to toe and then back at his friend. “Uncle Days Out?”

Mingyu snorts, and Wonwoo had to pinch him on the waist to stop him. “Yeah, old enough to be my uncle, right?”

The older fiercely shot his eyes when the man giving him the teasing face. Wonwoo pouts, hate the fact that he’s always the one who gets mocked. But Mingyu is Mingyu, he knows the way to comfort people. He pulls the petite man closer and burry him on his chest. “Nah, he’s not. So unfortunate having an uncle as handsome as this. We just had sex this morning.”

“Jesus Christ!” Wonwoo hissing.

“Good for you, man.” Minghao answers lazily. “So who am I gonna paint today?”

“This old fella right here.”

“Alright. Anything in mind?”

Wonwoo looks up his face to see Mingyu, searching for any kind of clue. But the tall man only mouthing _do what you want_ to him.

Wonwoo whispers something to Minghao’s ear so Mingyu can’t hear him, and the man nods in understanding. Wonwoo is in the tattoo room for nearly thirty minutes without no sound coming from inside. That’s pretty amusing since Mingyu thought he would scream in pain Mingyu had to hold on to his hand. But the man did great, and Mingyu somehow feeling so proud of him.

When the man finally standing in front of him, Mingyu gives him the brightest smile he could possibly pull off. “You okay?”

“Stings a bit.”

“May I see it?”

“Sure.”

Wonwoo unbuttoned his shirt slowly, showing the milky soft skin right in front of him. Despite seeing a whole of it just this morning, Mingyu still gulps nervously without any particular reason. His throat dry, his cheeks feel hot. But he shrugs all of that away. When Mingyu sees the black tattoo and red skin, he blinks his eyes. The words are right above the man’s left chest, closer to the collarbone. Written in the beautiful cursive letters, it looks so fit on the man’s skin.

“ _Cogito, ergo sum_?”

“I think, therefore I am.”

“Latin?”

“Mhm,” the man nods. “René Descartes.”

“Looks good on you.”

“Good, then.” Wonwoo smiles, and it did things to Mingyu’s chest. A blossoming flower grows on his chest.

“Wait here for a moment?”

“Where are you going?”

“Pay the man who made the masterpiece.”

“Oh, no need.” Wonwoo wrapped his arm around Minghao, looking like a bestfriend already. “I told him it was my birthday.”

Mingyu put both of his hands on the waist, slightly annoyed. “So you’re basically seducing him inside.”

Wonwoo winks. “Kinda.”

The tall man pulls Wonwoo back to his side possessively. His lips pouting in a cute way and Wonwoo in a desperately need on kissing that thing. “ _Traitor_.”

They finally go back to Mingyu’s car after Wonwoo and Minghao are done making fun of him. The man drives the car with one hand while using the other to eat the churros on Wonwoo’s hand. The car filled with Mingyu’s weird music Wonwoo never even heard before and it started to hurt his ear. But seeing the younger dancing happily to the song makes him happy, so he lets him play anything he wants.

As much as it’s hard to believe, Wonwoo couldn’t believe himself that someone he used to adore only through his voice is now sitting beside him, breathing and alive. It’s not a one-sided interaction when Mingyu says something and Wonwoo nods without the man even knowing his existence. Mingyu, as bizarre as it sounds, is now licking Wonwoo’s fingers on his mouth, cleaning the crumbs in the most unnecessary way. The sky is blue and the sun is yellow. Everything is so simple.

“So,” Says the younger, mouth busy on chewing another bite of churros. “Do you often listen to my podcast?”

“Never missed a single episode.”

“Damn, you’re a fan.”

Wonwoo shrugged his shoulder. “You can say it like that.”

“Do you think I did well? Spare me your thought.”

“ _You did well_? Bullshit. It was good.”

A chuckle coming from the younger’s mouth. “I thought you gonna say otherwise.”

“I really like the way you talk, it’s engaging, makes me wanna do all the thing you suggested. Like… that one time when you talked about Poverty? I sometimes still questioning it myself. Is it purely a fundamental economic issue, or is it a social one? I started to read a lot of books to dig in into that. That kinda put my life in balance, since I more into business but never the people. It’s always about profit and income for me. But I never knew there’s a connection between extreme poverty and human rights. How did missed such an important aspect of life?”

Mingyu, still driving with one hand on his blue jeans and a white t-shirt, looking at the road silently. But Wonwoo knows he’s listening. Mingyu’s eyes speak louder than his gesture. “I like it.”

“Like... what?”

“When you become chatty. Why did your friends said you’re a loner?”

“That’s because I am.”

“Not from the way you sound just now.”

“It was—” The older slumped on his seat. “I hate talking to someone before I get attached to them. I need the person to care about the flow of the conversation as much as I did. And human is tiresome, I can’t stand their stupidity. See? This is why I can’t have friends. I set my standard to high only for us to talk. _To talk, Mingyu_!”

“Do you know the concept of a comfort zone?”

“What?”

“Well, _y’know_ ,” the car stopped at the red light, and Mingyu uses the chance to look right in Wonwoo’s eyes, swimming even deeper. “Comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there. But that as well, is a misconception. You’re smart, okay? Not only because of the glasses or the fact that you’re a business analyst. But you’re aware of your surrounding. That could be your greatest weapon to engage people to like you, yeah? However you need to explore. You can’t be stagnant in your position. Learn to share it with other people. Staying in your comfort zone is not a sin, but you need to think what did you get from being there. Is it gonna take you somewhere? Or it will hold you from doing more?”

Wonwoo keeps his mouth shut when Mingyu hits the pedal after the traffic light turns green. He’s looking straight into the road, thinking about how everything Mingyu just said which hits him right in the heart, bringing up the dilemma out of nowhere. It bothers him to realize that the younger is right, that he was the one who limiting himself on growing. He was the one who makes everything so complicated. But he keeps that for himself just alright. He doesn’t want to ruin the day by being a party pooper.

“Hey, by the way, where are we heading?”

Mingyu smiles mischievously. “Somewhere fun.”

When Mingyu said somewhere fun, an amusement park is what in Wonwoo’s mind. But the younger seemingly never stopped on surprising him. They're entering a door that has a lot of cute ornament between the frame, a bunch of kittens massively attacking their feet all at once. Wonwoo is gasping on happiness, he had never seen so many kittens at once. He started to hold them one by one, patting their head and combing their fur with his fingers. Some of them meowing loudly, asking for attention just like everybody else.

“Hi there you, little cutie!” Wonwoo sitting in the middle of the room, spreading his legs while welcoming every kitten with an open arm. He looks radiant, there are no single space left for him to widen his smile.

The glasses man staying inside for hours. Feeding them, bathing them, playing with them. Suddenly he's not a thirty-five years old workaholic who pity enough to lie to his friends that he had a boyfriend, who calls for help at his fear of being alone on his birthday.

It was Jeon Wonwoo, a smiley Wonwoo pouring all his heart into something that he does likes the most. It was a moment of something that needs to be written on the pages of his life. _Today, July 17, Wonwoo is happy, and thus is happiness is what matters the most._

Mingyu leaning himself on the door, hands clasped in front of the chest, eyes focusing in one direction. “Are you happy?”

“Of course I am!”

“Is this better than work?”

“Way, way, better than work.”

“Good. Cause I have more.”

“More?” Wonwoo widens his eyes. “More than this?”

The tall man chuckles. “If you’re done playing meet me outside, yeah? I wanna smoke a bit.”

There’s a nursing home right behind the kitten shelter. A warm wooden house with a lot of plants and garden. The house looks so warm and quiet, a two situation Wonwoo finds very endearing. Mingyu takes him to the greenhouse where most of the patient is taking an evening stroll with their nurses. He likes it. He likes it very much here. Mingyu notices that from the way Wonwoo’s eyes would disappear along with his smile. The petite man helps a grandmother to drink on her almond milk while telling her a story about his own grandmother back at home. She seems to enjoy his company because she keeps on showing her teeth.

A middle-aged woman comes from inside a while later. She looks pretty on her ponytail, a bit of crinkle around the eyes but other than that she looks strong. Wonwoo sees how Mingyu smiling brightly when she approaching him, giving the man a tight hug while tiptoeing. They talk for a while before finally Mingyu pointing at Wonwoo and making the man jolts on his seat. Both of them approaching him slowly and Wonwoo hurriedly put a smile on his face.

“Hey, I want to introduce you to someone.”

Wonwoo nods, offering his hand. “Hi, mam. Jeon Wonwoo.”

“So I’ve heard,” The beautiful woman says, smiling. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Jeon. I’m this silly giant mom, by the way.”

“ _I’m sorry—you’re wh—_ ” Wonwoo gulps. “You’re his mom.”

Mingyu eyeing him with the look Wonwoo decipher as teasing. When will he be tired of teasing him?

“Yeah, I run this place. It’s a miracle for him to visit me so sudden like this so thanks to you, I guess.”

“That’s… a good thing, I hope.”

“Of course it’s a good thing!” Mingyu’s mom rubbing on Wonwoo’s arm just like how his own mom did it. It’s soft and motherly. “So, for what do I owe this pleasure?”

Mingyu wanted to answer when Wonwoo beats him first. “Work research.”

“Work research?” Mingyu’s mom echoed, confused.

“Yeah, I’m his boss.”

“Oh, I knew it! You look too mature to hang out with my idiot son. How is he in the office?”

Mingyu replying her with something Wonwoo didn’t quite hear because he’s too busy to catch on the situation. The younger sarcastically raises his eyebrow at him while mouthing _boss?_ and Wonwoo just wanted the world to swallow him. He doesn’t know what but something seems wrong and off.

Mingyu’s mom insisted they should eat dinner together in here, said it’s too lonely sometimes for her without someone to talk and Wonwoo doesn’t have the heart to decline the offer. The dinner tradition is quite unique. The elderly got to sit in the chair placed in a circle, just like the clock. Then one by one they got the chance to tell how was their day. Wonwoo is having a good time listening to every story, getting and learning a new perspective of people. This time, he got it from someone who doesn't even young anymore, who wasn’t capable of doing everything so freely just like he does right now.

Their trip on the way home filled with one channel on the radio playing a playlist of a love song from the year of early eighty. Maybe Mingyu knows how tired Wonwoo was listening to his pick of nowadays song, or maybe it’s just the universe trying to conspire against them. _Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You_ by _George Benson_ swinging faintly on the speaker, accompanying the silence between them.

It’s like an invisible cue to rest themselves, no one forcing them to initiates any conversation. Wonwoo guesses they were mature enough to decide where they are going to take this story as soon as they stepped their feet outside the car, welcoming the end of the day. One thing to be sure is that it wouldn’t be good. Someone heart is gonna break and it’s purely for the sake of what’s best.

Mingyu escorts the older into the front door of his apartment. Every step feels as heavy as fighting the storm, but the day surely should end and it ends right here, right now. Wonwoo couldn’t even dare to look up his face until Mingyu himself aiming it towards him, grabbing softly on the tip of the chin. “Hey.”

The petite man just smiles, a doubted one.

“Don’t be a stranger, okay? You can call me anytime. We can hang out and—”

“—Fuck?”

Mingyu chuckles, shaking his head. “And fuck.”

“Okay.”

“Please take care of yourself yeah, hyung?”

Wonwoo bites on his lips, palm clenching hardly. “That’s the first.”

“First of what?”

“You’re calling me hyung.”

The younger seems taken aback himself. “Yeah?”

Instead of replying, Wonwoo rests his forehead on Mingyu’s firm chest. He didn’t do anything, just leaning and transferring the man’s warmth into him. Mingyu lets him. He keeps his hand on himself because this is not the time for that. The timing just wasn’t right.

“I hope we had the same understanding on this. I… I really enjoyed your company. This is the first time in a long time I experienced so many exciting things at once. And on my birthday. Imagine how good is that? Yesterday I was a desperate guy wanting a friend to spend my birthday and tonight I’m a whole new man. All thanks to you.”

Mingyu didn’t say anything, he was just rubbing the older’s back while sniffling on the silky black hair in silence.

“But I don’t want to do anything with you. This was just… _just…_ ” Is it really necessary for his tongue to betray him at this exact moment?

“ _A one-time thing_?”

“ _A one-time thing_.” The older repeats. “I’m too old to do romance with you, Mingyu. I think my prospect in the future is way more complicated than yours. You still have so much ahead meanwhile what I need in life is to settle down. I see you, yeah? I see how you still wanna have so much fun and all. Someone like you shouldn’t be stuck with someone like me. I can’t give you more than this.”

Mingyu hugs him now, still keeping the petite man on his embrace. There were no emotion or string attached, just two human being comforting each other. It’s nice. The light of the corridor is automatically turned off by now, making it so hard for them to see each other. The darkness doesn’t stop the younger to find Wonwoo’s forehead, giving it a light peck just about the tip. “It still your birthday.”

“What?”

“It's the seventeenth of July. I’m still your fake boyfriend.”

Both of them laughs, remembering the chaotic night once again. Yeah, it’s how it all started, isn’t it? So weird how time flies from yesterday and then today, then tomorrow, and goes in on. Mingyu pulls something from his back pocket, a little black box. The younger opens it carefully then give the thing to Wonwoo. It was a green-purple earphone with a little sparkling in the back of the bud. There’s a letter **K.M** written in gold and Wonwoo immediately knows what kind of personal stuff is this.

“So you can listen to me better.” He says, calmly.

“Mingyu—”

The tall man wouldn’t let him talk because as soon as Mingyu’s finger landed on Wonwoo’s lips, tracing every bit of it tenderly, the man is out of words. He’s weak even from a simple touch. He wants Mingyu so bad it starting to get a toll on him. The desire, the lust, everything rushing on his blood like a raging wave.

“Goodbye kiss?”

The older nods. He nods without any hesitation.

Mingyu was so eager on this one. This time he doesn’t bite or spending time admiring how soft the cave of Wonwoo’s mouth is. He just keeps kissing him, deep and tender, full of meaning, lots of tongues involved, but the petite man realized how sad the kisses are. How sad for the kiss to be just a filler between every encounter from this day and afterwards. It will be only a sweetens, the way they express each other. Between them, a human being named Wonwoo and Mingyu, everything must’ve set to be casual. Casual encounter, casual sex, _casual friend_. That was all, for the time being.

“I really can’t wait for next year.”

Wonwoo breaths, still panting from all the effort he poured into the kiss. “What’s on next year?”

“Your birthday.”

Both of them chuckles, then giving the warmest and tightest hug ever to each other.

So much for a happy ending, right? How wise of them for willing to be the victim of an adult world, and telling themselves not all story ended with a happy ending. Life, as the contradictory belief it seems, is realistically cruel. It builts only for you to seek and seek, and after you reach the top of your curiosity it will either satisfy or disappoint you. The answer is as simple as yes or no. It’s how about you get on with the process, about the way you enjoyed it, about what will you remember about this day sometime in the future.

That’s life.

And you’re the victim.

_So, fight._

  
_“Hi honey, it’s your hyung, Jeonghan. I want to apologize about what drunk me and Soonyoung said. You know how alcohol did it. And sorry for ruining your birthday, we’ll make it up to you. How about a ski trip this weekend? All bills on me. Think about it as our bonding friendship time. Anyway, I have decided to resign by the end of the month. You're right, it’s time for both of us to stop being a pain in the ass. I really love Seungcheol, and I’m not ready to sacrifice him just because of my stupid ego. I’m awesome anyway, lots of company wants me. Enjoy your last days as my co-worker, bitch. And oh, it’s still your birthday so happy birthday, my precious brother. See you tomorrow in the office. Don’t forget to tell me everything about this handsome young guy. I know you’ve been fucking him the whole day. Once again, happy birthday!”_

  
**1 Unread Message.**

Kwon Soonyoung.

_fCKJD WON JDJDKJSL JIHOON JUST DEADASS PINNED ME AGAINST THE ELEVATOR AND SAID THAT HE LIKES ME AND WE ALMOST KISSED BUT THE CCTV IS ON SO I’M AFRAID IT WILL CONSIDER AS A SEX TAPE bUT anyways!!11!! oh my GOD LEE JIHOON LIKES ME HOW IN THE HELL IS THIS HAPPENING HE’S ALWAYS BEEN AN ASSHOLE TO ME GOOD LORD IN SEVEN HELLS HELP ME WHERE ARE YOU REPLY TO ME YOU BITCH_

_conclusion: I’M CANCELLING A WHOLE BULLSHIT ABOUT RESIGNING_

_Evening, our dearest sleepy friends!_

_I hope you won’t get sick of me yet because today I am absolutely back to sing in your ears with the topic I’m about to dig in. But hopefully Friday was kind enough for you to through your day and that is why! We’re only gonna talk about fun things today._

_Before we start I want to give a shoutout to every lonely soul out there, who’s now probably doubting every decision you have made. But you know what, my dude? Life is too short for that. You can be in your room right now, crying behind the blanket. But you might be on the top of Mount Everest by tomorrow. Who knows. “Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories, 1995._

_So! On today’s episode of Wake Up, Sleepyhead: are you ready to talk about one nightstand?_

[]

**Author's Note:**

> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/cikicuba) | [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/cikicuba)


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